Symbid is having a tough time, lately. The Dutch crowdfundingplatform took a huge loss over 2015 and things don’t seem much better at the start of 2016. But a brand new investment gives them some air to breath. In a new funding round, Symbid raised a convertible loan of €490.000 with an interest of 8 percent.
Losing money
The funding arrives just in time as Symbid still takes heavy losses. In 2015 they took a loss of over €2 million. Things didn’t look up in the first quarter of 2016, Fundwijzer notices. Symbid took another loss of €600.000 in the first three months. This huge loss can be mostly accredited to the 30 percent rise in personnel costs and begs the question how far the new loan will carry them.
Growing revenue
There is a silver lining though: revenue grew by 21 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Revenue from crowdfunding in this quarter was €65.000. It is not enough by far, but at least Symbid is on the way up. Korstiaan Zandvliet, CEO en Founder van Symbid lets Fundwijzer know he’s confident that they’ll come out on top. He claims that the continuity of the company was never in danger. With the cutting of the costs and restructuring, he claims that the company can reach its break-even point in less than a year. It does however proof once again that crowdfunding is not the end-all solution for free money, as we recently argued (dutch).
Closing an Amsterdam office
Additional to the new loan, Symbid will significantly cut costs. They’ll do this by closing their second office in Amsterdam, allowing them to shrink their R&D department. According to Zandvliet they have finished developing the product that is The Funding Network. Further investments are not required, they are now ready to reap the rewards.